When life gets wacky, some of us get confused. Some of us get overwhelmed and wonder what the world is coming to. A few of us might actually stop and laugh. Proverbs 17:22 declares that laughter is good medicine. You can recognize the truth of that simply by checking in with your spirit. If you never have anything to laugh about, you feel weighted down, unable to cope with the things around you. You see all the reasons to be miserable.
Maybe you remember the scene in the original Mary Poppins movie where Uncle Albert is laughing so much, he rises in his chair to the ceiling and just can’t get down. Mary Poppins comes to help him in the situation and laughter prevails, causing everyone’s spirits to rise. It may be merely a metaphor, but it serves us all well to consider if laughter could help us get beyond those things that keep us feeling blue.
You might remember the biblical story of Abraham and Sarah. They spent years praying for a baby. They lived in a culture that blamed women when they could not conceive. Sarah was miserable. They prayed. They waited. Finally, God showed up with the answer. He told them they would indeed have a child. We might think this would cause them to be over-the-top with happiness, but they were shocked, uncertain, and wondered if this could be true. Why? Because Sarah was 90 years old, and Abraham was 100. Apparently, biology or ticking clocks didn’t bother the plans God had for them. They both laughed at the thought, but sure enough, a few months later little Isaac was born. His name means laughter.
It strikes me that maybe we need to let God be God, not assume we have all the answers ourselves, and let Him act in our lives. Only He can move past the boundaries of logic and science. Only He can give us incredible reasons to know, that like Uncle Albert, or Abraham and Sarah, we can laugh and trust that our spirits will rise in the process.
Don’t you think your body, mind, and spirit could benefit from a good laugh?
Blessings to you today.